Page 83 of Drop His Mask

Icy dread. Volcanic tension. Explosive anger.

Anadil—Nightingale—caused me to forget all rationality.

Levi had told me at the beginning of these games that she had visited him right before he woke up here, and it was my guess that was who he had met.

“My sister?”

“Yes,” Levi confirmed.

She was close. In this building. She might not bemySponsor but she was a part of this fucking game.

“I think”–Levi shifted on his feet unsteadily, glancing around anxiously–“you need to at least know this. The next game will turn the teammates against each other. I don’t know how or why. But it won’t go well. If a guard comes to retrieve you in the chaos, let them. Follow them. It will keep you safe.” His voice wasoff. His accent all but gone.

He’s lying to me.

But what part of it is a lie?

I stepped back from Levi, examining him closely. “Okay.” I didn’t mean the word.

Something wasn’t right. His encounter with my sister had changed things. She was a master manipulator. Maybe she had gotten inside his head? Filled it with her lies? Promised to be our saviors?

The reason everything had gone to shit in the first place was because of her. Maybe she was back here to finish me off.

Placing a blank slate across my face and washing away my flickering unease, I did my best to offer a reassuring smile. “You’re going to be exempt from the next game. You were clearly the fastest in the last round.”

Levi furrowed his eyebrows, but then he let out a long breath. “Yes. Raven. Darlin’. Please just stay safe okay? This isn’t going to end the way we think it will.”

This isn’t going to end the way we think it will.

It was nearly exactly what Geoff had said to me.

Years of needing a healthy dose of paranoia to survive was catching up with me now. Levi had done absolutely nothing for me to not trust him, he had been there every step of the way to keep me alive, to make me feel safe. But right now, warning bells were going off. Maybe he wasn’t lying to me, but my sister had told himsomething.

“Levi.” I looked up at him through my eyelashes. “What aren’t you revealing to me? You can tell me, you know?”

“I can’t lie to you. I’m not any fucking good at it, but darlin’ I promise you, knowing right now will not help anything. It’s kind of like with Enzo. Sometimes keeping the secret is less painful. But it will come to light soon. I promise.”

That is the truth.

Most of my anxiety dispersed, but a sturdy cord of apprehension steadily pumped through me.

What does he know? What could my sister have told him that could possibly be worse than everything she had already done? How could it be any more horrific?

“I don’t like it, but I understand. Stay safe you big brute.”

“I love you, Raven.” He bent down, pressing one last soul-crushing kiss onto me. Stamping me as his own.

“I love you, too.” And I did as much as I possibly could love someone with my damaged heart. I just hoped it would be enough. Levi was right though, I had kept a life-altering secret from him when I thought it best. I owed him the same trust he had put into me.

“Time’s up.” Felix whipped the door open.

Another guard next to Felix grabbed hold of me, marching us away before I could do anything to stop him.

I turned my head back to get one last glance at Levi. I wished I hadn’t.

His face was clouded in dark shadows, agony and anguish had been painted across his features, his eyes screwed shut, his lips pinched.

Whatever my sister had told him…whatever he was keeping from me…I could feel with certainty it would rip me apart.

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